‘The Brakes Have Come Off’: What We Heard This Week

“The brakes have come off pharmaceutical pricing and American families are hurtling along in the passenger seat, terrified about what comes next.” – Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, at a hearing on high drug prices.

“They did not mention why they had to reintroduce the bill — the manufacturers blocked its passage in the Senate at the end of the last Congress after it passed the Republican-controlled House.” – Marsha Simon, PhD, a healthcare consultant in Washington, on legislation to penalize drugmakers that game the Medicaid program to lower rebates they pay.

“All of them, basically one by one, said ‘No, we didn’t do that.'” — Devin Duffy, advocacy and policy associate at the Roosevelt Institute in New York City, on whether pharma company CEOs used windfalls from the 2017 tax cut bill to lower drug prices.

“Not explicitly, although we do care what the public thinks.” – Kenneth Frazier, CEO of Merck, on whether drugmakers worry about congressional inquiries when setting drug prices.

Meanwhile, on other topics:

“But probably more important, is the potential for use of total mutational burden as a biomarker.” – Neal Ready, MD, PhD, of Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina, on new data related to lung cancer prognosis.

“I consider it really an irony that you have one of the most contagious viruses known to man, juxtaposed against one of the most effective vaccines that we have, and yet we don’t do and have not done what could be done — namely, completely eliminate and eradicate this virus.” – Anthony Fauci, MD, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, on recent measles outbreaks in the U.S.

“You’re refusing to take responsibility for your company’s role in this crisis.” – Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) on an opioid manufacturer’s responses to questions about its marketing tactics.

“Five words: Ain’t over ’til it’s over.'” — Toni Choueiri, MD, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, channeling Yogi Berra, as he discussed JAVELIN data at the Genitourinary Cancers Symposium.

“Investigators who engage in misdirection may not actually be consciously trying to mislead people.” — MedPage Today blogger Milton Packer, MD, on inadvertent as well as deliberate manipulation of trial data.